Men & Gods

Artist Description

Formed in 2008, Men & Gods immediately set about making the myths. Creating a swirling, carnival-esque, psychedelic heavy blues music, drawing on their backgrounds, and drawing from the wellspring of something ancient and deeper and sweeter than the mere roots of Rock’n’ roll.

Troupe leader and guitarist/singer Marc Eden is the illegitimate son of a Greek shipping magnate shored up in Margate, Kent, England, where he was born. His mother was a beautiful Welsh gypsy from a circus background. His parents met at a public library whilst they were both searching for an out of print copy of Homer’s Iliad…Eden is said to have inherited his Mother’s gift of ‘second sight’, as well as both parents love of mythology and the occult…Without Rock ‘n’ Roll, Eden would have probably been a ‘spiv’, or a ‘carny’ all his life – selling bottles of beer to grammar school mates at England for a pound was his initial love, mainly during Latin, until he found the guitar, and when he first opened his mouth to sing out, it was all over. “I could hear Robert Johnson, I could hear Janis Joplin, I could hear all these voices telling me this is the path, the way, ya know?”. M.E. Described by Slash as: “One of the greatest RNR singers I’ve ever heard!” Well, indeed…

Main partner in crime is drummer/whateverer, Alrick Guyler, an Irish country boy Christian, who shares a deep love of the esoteric with Marc, travelling to Rosslyn cathedral in Scotland, to jam on strange instruments in the shadow of the profane, Masonic temple – always with his hands on the Celtic cross though…Both multi-instrumentalists, it is Guyler who collects the weird and wonderful. Harmoniums, middle-eastern lutes, strange African drums – all are utilised in the M&G sound, to “try and create something beautiful, something sacred”, according to yer man. Music is in this Celtic soul boy’s blood, it is his North, South East and West. No other interests…

On piano is Nadia Baki, a classically trained half Arabian, half Celtic-Scottish firebrand! Eden met Baki whilst she was belly-dancing in a seedy nightclub, pouring drinks over the ‘enthusiastic’ punters, who got a little too close! In the second half of the show, she sat down and played the upright. “It was single-handedly the most gorgeous piece of piano playing I had ever heard!” M.E. Needless to say, she was asked to join M&G on the spot. “Initially, I just wanted to be close to him, Marc”, says Baki. “I’d never met anyone that charismatic! For ages, I thought he’d put one of his spells on me, or something, and then I heard the music – WOW!” Never seen too far apart, rumor in London was that they were married secretly, or that they were related – cousins. Both declined to comment…

Martin ‘Minz’ Inman, is the bass player, and the ‘rock’ of the band. He is the calming influence that completes the Men & Gods quartet. He is improbably tall, and always has with a smile and a winning anecdote. Born in the North of England, Minz has a knowledge of glam rock music that would put Bowie to shame! Never too far from the pub, never too far from watching Bolton Wanderers, and never too far from souping up a car engine! Minz is mostly at home on the tour bus with a beer and a cigarette, dreaming of distant shores, of playing enormodome’s with M&G, and of living a house in the Hollywood Hills. A proper ‘stand up Gent’ – but remember ladies and Gentlemen, still waters run very deep!

So, roll up, roll up good people! And try and catch this band of gypsies while you can still see the whites of their eyes, and make out the crow feathers on their antique hats, as this is the Hari-Karaoke Show, and Men & Gods intend to have you all join them in their traveling extravaganza!